Education and Awareness
Credit: RAMP
Education and Awareness
Project 1: Freedom HIV/AIDS Project
Country: India
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: ZMQ Software Systems and Delhi State AIDS Control
Society
Application Area: Education and Awareness
Communicating information in an engaging, fun way is a critical ingredient of success in mHealth programs.
The Freedom HIV/AIDS games—launched in India in December 2005—have effectively enhanced HIV/AIDS
awareness by applying this principle. The games are tailored to target users from different social and demo-
graphic groups and run on more than 100 types of mobile phones, from the most basic to the most sophisti-
cated. ZMQ Software Systems, the maker of the games, believes the “Play-and-Learn method [the games
employ]…makes learning not only exciting and engaging but helps in the enhancement and retention of
knowledge.” This belief has been confirmed by the games’ popularity: by March 2006, only four months af-
ter the launch date, more than ten million games had been downloaded, many by mobile phone subscribers
in small cities and towns, the most vulnerable populations.
Reference sources:
http://www.freedomhivaids.in/FreedomHivAids.htm
http://www.zmqsoft.com/
Project 2: Learning About Living
Country: Nigeria
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: The UK charity OneWorld, ActionAid International Nigeria,
Action Health Incorporated, Education as a Vaccine Against AIDS (EVA), Butterfly Works Netherlands,
MTN Foundation and Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria
Application Area: Education and Awareness
mHealth programs that take a holistic approach to public health challenges often have the best chance of
success. Learning about Living, a collaborative pilot program, does this by providing young Nigerians with
an anonymous forum to learn about health, AIDS, sex, relationships, personal development, and living skills.
The program includes an interactive eLearning tool based on the Nigerian Family Life and HIV/AIDS Edu-
cation (FLHE) curriculum, as well as the mobile phone-based programs MyQuestion and MyAnswer. With
MyQuestion, Nigerian youth can submit questions via text message, a telephone hotline, or online. Ques-
tions are promptly answered by trained volunteers. MyAnswer sends out a monthly question (e.g., what is
the difference between HIV and AIDS?) and selects winners based on responses submitted via the web or
text message. The two-year project, launched in February 2007, was piloted in three locations in Nigeria,
and saw early success. The service received more than 2,500 questions in the first five days and received
10,000 questions in the first month.
Reference sources:
http://blog.whoiswho.de/stories/31872/
http://mobileactive.org/ask-about-sex-text-teenagers-learn-about-living-nigeria
http://uk.oneworld.net/article/archive/9789
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269380/38
http://www.learningaboutliving.com/south/about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCHPH-Nx-hc
Compendium of mHealth Projects 41
Education and Awareness
Project 3: HIV/AIDS Video Distribution by Mobile Phone
Country: Georgia
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: Save the Children and UNICEF
Application Area: Education and Awareness
HIV/AIDS receives little attention in regions such as the Caucasus, where the topic is taboo and many peo-
ple are uninformed about the disease and its causes. Save the Children and UNICEF collaborated in Janu-
ary 2008 to produce a 20-minute film about HIV/AIDS aimed at educating young people in Georgia. The film
content is compelling, featuring well-known young actors who portray the potential health risks of everyday
decisions and behaviors. Taking advantage of the popularity of mobile phones among young Georgians,
Save the Children and UNICEF converted the film into a format that is viewable on mobile phones, at which
point it was sent to thousands of young people around the country, who were encouraged to pass it on to
friends. The project was praised for its novelty and the ease of dissemination. This innovative social distri-
bution model for health information had never been used in Georgia before, but is sure to be replicated in
future initiatives.
Reference source:
http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/media_8237.html
Project 4: HIV Confidant
Country: South Africa
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: Dimagi, Inc. (privately held software company)
Application Area: Education and Awareness
In places where HIV-positive status remains a stigma, successful outreach efforts must address people’s
privacy and confidentiality concerns. The HIV Confidant project aims to encourage HIV/AIDS testing by
ensuring secure distribution of test results through the use of handheld computers and standard encryp-
tion techniques. Dimagi, a US-based software company, implemented the HIV Confidant project in 2003 at
the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in South Africa. In the pilot, 45,000 adults were tested
for HIV, and results were shared with participants through a secure PDA-based system. People who were
tested were provided with a unique ID code, and results were given only to those who provided the code.
The HIV Confidant system runs on Palm m500 and Handspring Visor PDAs, but can be adapted for non-
Palm devices for greater flexibility and extended reach.
Reference sources:
http://www.dimagi.com/content/hiv-confidant.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/13776/?a=f
Credit: UN Tim McKulka
42 Compendium of mHealth Projects
Education and Awareness/ Remote Data Collection
Credit: Vital Wave Consulting
Project 5: Project Masiluleke
Country: South Africa
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: Praekelt Foundation, iTeach, National Geographic, Nokia
Siemens Networks, MTN, Ghetto Ruff, Children of South African Legacies, Aricent and frog design
Application Area: Education and Awareness
See case study on page 22.
Reference sources:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7688268.stm
http://www.poptech.org/project_m/
http://opensourcepbx.tmcnet.com/news/2008/10/24/3730564.htm
http://www.frogdesign.com/press-release/poptech-unveils-project-masiluleke.html
Project 6: Text to Change (TTC) – HIV Prevention Through SMS Quiz
Country: Uganda
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: Text to Change (TTC), Zain (previously Celtel), the local
NGO AIDS Information Centre (AIC), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Merck
Application Area: Education and Awareness
See case study on page 25.
Reference sources:
http://www.texttochange.com
Interviews with the Text To Change team
Remote Data Collection
Project 7: Cell-PREVEN
Country: Peru
Sponsoring Organization and Partners: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Peru), Imperial
College (London), University of Washington (Seattle) and Peru’s Ministry of Health
Application Area: Remote Data Collection
When it comes to effective data collection in remote areas of the developing world, less is often more.
Cell-PREVEN was created to allow access to real-time data to members of the healthcare ecosystem in
Peru. This interactive voice response system enables health workers in the field to collect and transmit data
via basic mobile phones. The data is aggregated in a centralized database and made available to medical
professionals, and the system is designed to send SMS or e-mail alerts if certain symptoms are recorded.
During a three-month pilot test, 797 reports were collected and 374 adverse events were recorded—30
severe enough to trigger an SMS alert to a team leader. The pilot researchers believe that Cell-PREVEN
demonstrates that “cell phones are a feasible means of collecting and reporting data in real-time in remote
communities…it’s not necessary to have the latest Palm Pilot or Tablet PC to create a sophisticated public
health surveillance system.”
Reference sources:
http://www.prevenperu.org/preven/
http://www.prevenperu.org/preven/presentation_curioso.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/wcurioso/cellpreven.pdf
Compendium of mHealth Projects 43